University professors joined the occupying students today at the Faculty of History and Philology. Professors had earlier announced a one-day boycott of lectures in support of their students’ protest.
Professors stated that government’s latest decisions, supposedly a response to student demands, further violate the autonomy of universities. They demanded the government to retract these decisions and the law on higher education.
Prime Minister Rama recently decided to assign each government minister a university/faculty “to take under their wings”. The initiative was presented in a pompous ceremony under Rama’s broader “Pact with University” policy – a document that meets all student demands, according to the government .
Students claim the so-called “pact” is in fact a unilateral document written by the government, and it does not meet their demands.
Under the “pact”, all ministries will have a related university or faculty “under their wings”, i.e. Ministry of Health – University of Medicine, Ministry of Justice – Faculty of Law, etc., of which all ministers will be responsible. The pact seemingly includes employing students in public administration and government agencies, as well as for the government to work closely with university administrations to solve students’ issues.
During another ceremony for the pact, PM Rama ordered student Klodiana Agaj out of the room when she demanded Edi Rama to retract the law on higher education and to meet students’ demands.
Deputy-dean Agron Gjekmarkaj of the Faculty of history of Philology said that they would take government decisions to the court:
“The University of Tirana will demand the Administrative Court to reject the government decisions violating the [university] autonomy. We won’t allow [PM Rama’s] ministers to patronize the university.”
Professor Mark Marku said that decisions severely violated the autonomy of universities:
“According to one of the decisions, the government will prepare a [university] statute on which all other statutes will be based. Universities already have statutes. This is a direct violation of [universities’] autonomy.”
Meanwhile students are still occupying the Faculties of History and Philology, Law and Social Sciences.
